Marais named Ruan Steenkamp as captain for the campaign, although he has been ruled out of the opening weekend of the competition due to a hamstring injury.

The squad sees the return of prop Dayan van der Westhuizen and lock Irne Herbst, who just completed their loan stint with the Southern Kings, as well as the inclusion of Blitzbok forward Tim Agaba.

Jan Serfontein, Jesse Kriel, Lood de Jager, Trevor Nyakane and Handré Pollard have tripartite agreements with the Springboks in place and will not be available for the Currie Cup.

The Vodacom Bulls open their campaign against the Tafel Lager Griquas in Kimberley on Saturday. They then have a bye before taking on the Xerox Golden Lions in their first home game of the tournament.

Marais expressed excitement about the tournament, hoping to go one better than last year, when the Vodacom Blue Bulls lost in the final against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs.

“It is an exciting time for all of us. Our new Executive of Rugby, John Mitchell, has joined us now and his input will be massive. We will be trying to build our unique style and although we will need time to find our feet in doing so, the focus will be progressing every week and build on that as the season progresses.”